On Wednesday, 14 November 2012 13:17:29 UTC, Ernest Major wrote:
> You missed out some significant words. To reject the factuality
> of a Noachian Flood only requires the presupposition that evidence
> means something; that is that there is no *trickster* God *of
> sufficient power*.
i.e., that neither God nor anyone else would miraculously destroy
all physical evidence of Noah's worldwide flood - the Grand Canyon,
for instance, does not count as evidence of that - except for
the story being written in various myths around the world, not only
the Jewish tradition, but with substantial differences between
tellings.
The world does not bear the marks that it would do if Noah's story
was entirely factual. By /entirely/ factual, I mean to say that
"There was a flood somewhere once, but some people put their stuff
into a boat, so they were okay", is sometimes claimed as a probable
true story behind Noah's story, with the difference that with Noah,
everyone in the world who isn't in the boat dies.
Consider this: what is the point of putting the Noah story in the
bible? What does it tell you that is useful to know? It tells you
that God can kill everybody in the world. And it tells you that he
has promised that he won't do that again, having done it once
(nearly everybody). It tells you that the sea goes in and out on
the sea shore but only within limits that God has now set for it.
But... did you hear about Hurricane Sandy? Or did you ever hear
about a tsunami? Think about that, please.